Jussi Ekholm

I think one dealer had a tachi koshirae like this at Samurai Art Expo. Unfortunately it didn't intrest me so I didn't look it, don't know who had it and don't know if it had a blade in. I just remember seeing a tiny tachi koshirae on Friday in one of the booths.

It was an awesome event, I was very happy I visited. For me the best part was meeting other people in there and I met a lot of old friends and some new ones too. I am starting to realize how small this hobby is in the Europe as you'll often mostly meet familiar faces. I was thinking this would be the event to really gather up masses of collectors together however unfortunately the attendance did not get to levels I expected. Organizers did an amazing job to bring us wide variety of lectures and great bunch of dealers together. I was really happy that Nick came across the Atlantic and we got 5 Japanese dealers to attend the event. I kept wishing the dealers would have gotten good sales during the event. Here are some hopefully helpful thoughts. I enjoyed all the lectures as well I am totally hooked on this hobby. Later during the Saturday I was thinking there could have been maybe 1 beginner level lecture at some point? For example something briefly telling about different types of Japanese weapons etc. I am not sure if the organizers are gearing to get new collectors in or mostly gearing it to more senior collectors. Likewise for the amazing items on display there was very little information on them. Sure us sword geeks know the "common" stuff but I would have thought for new collectors there could have been some kind of explanation cards near displays? For example when there were the 4 Ichimonji there could have been a brief description about Ichimonji and those 4 specific swords, for Ko-Aoe & Chu-Aoe small history of Aoe and the measurements of the swords, for Shikkake and Hōshō there could have been a brief description about Yamato 5, I think you catch my drift here. I strongly think we have to also focus on the new collectors to provide some basic material for easy study. I know this because I must admit I couldn't fully enjoy all of the tsuba because I did not have enough information to even properly understand what I am really looking for. Of the dealers I must give special credit to Giheiya as I thought they had a great inventory for the event. They had several modern swords (1900's) that I think would have been perfect for martial artists, it is not too common to have several affordable Japanese swords to choose from for martial arts purposes in Europe. I know how important it is for martial artists to get the feel of the sword, and here were multiple choices for very reasonable prices + no taxes, no wait, no postage etc. I had 2 great days in the Netherlands thanks to all the people and great items. I hope we will have a similar event in the future too.

Happy to see you all in there, feel free to come and chat even if you do not yet know me.

I think it is this one. I know I would have guessed the period about correctly but anything after that would have been too difficult.

I guess I can't make a guess as I think I know what sword it is.

Is the blade length c. 92,5 cm like in your picture?

Very nice post Darcy and thank you for posting that information. I'd love to see you participate more often. I don't see reason that no arguments policy is cutting off normal forum interaction.

Here are few thoughts that may or may not be bit negative and are just some thoughts nothing to be taken too seriously. Would be nice to get to see Token GB appraisal of the Akihiro and actually see the sword too. The shape is not really strong tachi shape and it could be just a regular katana with gimei. I can't zoom in the picture to see nakago & ana well enough. There are some late tachi from early Muromachi that are quite short and quite straight. So based on that one picture I wouldn't even guess if it is tachi or katana. As for Kageyori I'm quite positive it would have been "shinsaed", as because signed authenticated tachi by Kageyori are worth a lot. I have prices for 3 signed tachi and asking prices for them ranged from 3,5M Yen to 8M Yen. Signed legitimate Kageyori would by my logic go for Jūyō. Granted I don't fully grasp the Japanese fascination for rivalries etc. other technicalities when going for top tier "beauty pageants" but I'd think historical value of signed Ko-Bizen tachi would be enough. I am a sucker for nicely curved tachi so in overall it looks nice by shape even if it would be gimei. I see Masamitsu as the most interesting of the 3 I listed above. One major factor being that it might be possible for me to have a Masamitsu in collection in my lifetime where as Kageyori and Akihiro are out of my league. Masamitsu has lots of blades attributed to him so getting a small database together is easier. Unfortunately I have only 1 signed tachi for 5M yen and 1 signed wakizashi for 1M yen. Plus 9 mumei katana & naoshi ranging from 1,2M yen to 5,5M yen. Then on to the speculative part of the sword. As was stated the sword has old papers, and it would only be logical to apply new NBTHK papers for authentication as well signed legitimate Masamitsu tachi are quite valuable. Plus given how many mumei Jūyō swords attributed to him there are I would again think that signed tachi by him would logically be easily on a course to Jūyō. However the tricky part is here as the sword has new NTHK papers. I know that NTHK shinsa guys know more than I ever will and they have judged the signature. I personally like NTHK authentications and I hope I do not get too much flak saying out loud that I think NBTHK papers are just financially superior in the market. In general you don't see too many expensive swords with NTHK papers in the market. In general I feel that with Hozon authentication the starting price/estimate for this tachi would be totally different from the 2,5-3k£'s. The question in my mind is, has this been already sent for Hozon and NBTHK didn't agree with the signature? This one is really interesting and I'd really like to see this one.

I guess I know my own preferences by now. 67. Masamitsu, 69. Kageyori and 2. Akihiro. Those would be my 3 to keep an eye for but unfortunately I won't be buying anything for a long while. Still even with the 24% premium added to prices I'd agree with Curran that some estimates seem to be on the lower end of scale. Of course it is impossible to judge the condition on the single picture provided.

I think there are two approaches to this. Of course high end art collectors might not enjoy the sword too much but historical fanatic such as myself might be really drawn into it. As Michael said earlier about the price range, this is not really a "gem" price as it's been recently discounted at Aoi and was listed some years earlier by another Japanese dealer at 1,4M yen. Condition is of course what would be expected at this level but for me there is a huge but that overrides the condition... as it is a signed Ayanokōji school tachi. I have just got info on 2 signed Sueyuki tachi that have been listed for sale in recent years, and here is the other one at 10M Yen: http://iidakoendo.com/4386/ So if wanting a signed piece from this school the opportunities are rare and sword like one Jeremiah posted in OP would be a dream come true to collector like me. I would much rather go for a sword like this than a good condition suriage mumei Jūyō. Of course those are just personal preferences.

Thanks for posting this information Guido. I was amazed that I hadn't heard his name and story before given that he is Swedish-Japanese.

I replied so shortly before seeing this thread. I think USPS tracking ends when the package arrives to Finland. Then it is tracked by Finnish customs. It might take a day or two from getting into country to get registered by Finnish customs, then they will send a note by Finnish post for the person that they will need to declare the package (that might take some days to arrive). Or you can do it before getting the notification by mail, if you know how to do it. I got non sword related package from the US earlier this month, and USPS tracking showed it being in Finland but it was maybe 4-5 days after that when I was able to declare it online (I don't think I ever got the paper notification by mail as I declared it so fast).

Stefan Mäder has done awesome reasearch on this field.

I think there was a mumei blade with Tokubetsu Kichō and attribution den Masamune sold at Japanese auction and posted at NMB recently which might have inspired the posting? http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/25489-masamune-for-only-23k/ In general I will agree with Darcy as I don't think myself as smart and educated enough to outsmart the market. I will rather save my pennies and grab one decent sword somewhere along the way rather than gamble away my money with potential treasures (I just don't have funds for that). Lucky finds happen from time to time however. I remember talking with few German collectors on our way to eat in Berlin, about an ebay find which went through papering up to Jūyō papers straight away. I don't remember the details all that well so I'll leave them out as I don't want to write misinformation. Needless to say someone made an amazing find but for every one of these success stories there are dozens and dozens of failures. This might be bit harsh to say but I think here in "Western world" we overvalue low-mid quality swords. Where as Japanese dealers are more up to speed on their actual value. Which makes two slighty different markets which comes down to what Luis wrote above that we might see something in Japan as a really good deal while it in reality is just according to market prices but we know that in Western market you could possibly flip it for some money. Sometimes you can see the same swords being offered in different countries over the years if you track items.

This is the same tachi that is here in the forum. Or was here in the forum, I can't find it anymore...

They are fairly nice swords and for the shock of many I for example wouldn't mind having one of those as a cutter, granted I rarely cut stuff anymore and don't spend money on Chinese made cutting instruments. And the price of these ended up getting a lot higher than I would pay for bare Chinese made blade. I agree with Ray that these are most likely polished in China. There have been nice polishes coming out of China for several years, and they are quite cost effective. I don't know the techniques they use etc. But you have to consider that as low as these swords are selling, swordsmith(s)/polisher(s) and retailer are still all making profit on these. The lack of shirasaya is something I have never understood about these and Komonjos offerings? It would be quite easy and economical to get a decent shirasaya made for these, and in my view it would easily increase their value over the cost of making it. I can understand Brians concern about private sellers selling these as genuine swords. It happens sometimes with Komonjo blades, mostly around collectors of modern blades. They have been mostly fitted with full koshirae, so they are quite attractive buys to many who do not know about Komonjo. But for those who have seen Komonjo stuff over the years they are quite easy to spot. It is kinda weird for us who know bit more as buying bare blade from Komonjo and getting it professionally fitted runs already pretty close to affordable real modern Japanese swords in koshirae. Would be just better to buy a martial arts sword made by Japanese smith. Here is a Gassan fake for you: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-Samurai-Sword-Wakizashi/292539965590 At least they are really trying and putting more effort in these than most companies that produce Chinese made production katana. Heck I may end up liking these guys...

Here is a funny fact as I've been building my own database for personal purposes. Most of the sold swords "that can be easily tracked online" in the recent years (have been sold by well known dealers) that bear attiribution to Hōjōji are naginata-naoshi. Also to be noted that almost all of them had Jūyō status. Granted my sample size for Hōjōji is still very small 5 naoshi and 1 katana, out of them only the naginata-naoshi that is 37,8 cm had Tokubetsu Hozon. Another thing is that by looking at the asking prices of Hōjōji swords, they are almost always on the "low tier" of Jūyō. I personally really like very large naginata & naginata-naoshi and I like works of this school. I think the one Aoi has for sale is a really nice sword.

I would have guessed your teaching background from the way the session was held. Funnily enough month or two ago we had quite similar session at school but that focused on group dynamics and how well we worked with other people as the subject was totally different. Activating participants is great and you have to dive in and learn in different way so it is also motivating, or at least I think so.

Token Society of GB and NBTHK EB are putting up another amazing experience. So much interesting stuff happening throughout the weekend it will be a blast

I think it is Kanemasu 兼舛. In the brackets it is indicated it is attributed to Shintō era. There seem to be 2 Kanemasu working that time, one Ryōken school smith during Keichō (I have 1 oshigata of him and mei seems different). There is also Kanbun era Kanemasu who had title Harima no Kami. He used 3 different masu characters in his signatures according Sesko Index. Unfortunately I don't have a mei example of his.

Apparently there are some difficulties with the tickets. I just got refund by Paypal as the account I paid to never registered through Paypal. I was wondering as there is now new page reservation for tickets, will there be limited number of tickets, or can you just buy ticket from the door?

Pavel Bolf has impressed me for many years: https://www.katana-kaji.cz/en/and he might not be as well known internationally as I think he should be. Likewise Stefan Roth might not be too known internationally: http://www.seelenschmie.de/wordpress/

Amazing display Chris!

Great thanks to Peter Janssen for hosting this wonderful event for us, and to all others involved in organizing this. It was wonderful to meet old friends and new people, especially to get to meet some NMB members for the first time after knowing them by online for a long time. The lineup of swords was simply stunning. Rai Kunimitsu and Nobukuni tachi were pretty much perfect swords. However I am not a total "art sword" guy as definately my heart chose a different sword. Brain kept telling me that one of the 3 Tokubetsu Jūyō swords (there was also the Kageyasu in display case) in amazing state of preservation should be the pick. For me it was the signed and dated (1338) tachi by Osafune Nagashige that won my heart in a close race with the Nobukuni. Also there is an array of splendid armours all over the museum. Some of the armours were breathtaking and truely masterpieces. Even though I do not know anything about armours I can say they are top notch. To be noted for lovers of sword fittings the museum houses extremely impressive tsuba collection as well as other fittings too. I believe the tsuba are arranged by school/tradition basis. Even though I am not a tsuba guy I still could identify some traditions and guess some others. The good part in having a meeting with a bunch like this is you can just ask and someone can most likely answer to your question. So for example if some tsuba was giving you a headache then tsuba dudes could help with it and Martyna Lesniewska also offered her help and explained about the items. The funny thing is with so many items in display room I think I did not even notice nearly every item that was for display even though spending the day at looking at the items. There were so many items positioned in display cases, and now by looking at the few pictures I snapped on my phone I can see the many items I didn't notice.

Nice one Steve, I figured it might be shodai but I couldn't fit it for sure. 1st generation Kanenori would point it towards Ōei period and founder of San'ami school. I think references mention only signed tachi and tanto by this smith. I'd think some later Muromachi period Kanenori would be better fit. As it was so short katana I might guess somewhere late 1400's to early 1500's.